Carlos, that was just me funnin', hence the I actually upgraded to 180 brushed motors a few months ago, but burned them out by using 3S instead of 2S lipos. Need to get those replaced one day. BTW, the Cargotrans runs on DD, not gearboxes (did I read your statement right?).

Boy, the GWS-38 threads have been quiet today. Are we all burned out on it while waiting for that eagerly anticipated email from Joyce?

Just to give this thread a kick, I just wanted to say I've just ordered two 18 amp esc's for this project. I've decided to go with a pair of HiMaxx 2015-4100's, in gws gear boxes. I will gear it around 5-1. Going for an amp draw of around 11amps per motor. I'll use a 1500 3 cell, 20C rating. Should work fine with a bit of common sense throttle restraint. If not, I'll chuck in a 2100 3 cell. I have one of the Himaxx motors sitting on the shelf, so now I need to hunt down one more. Looking for a good deal on a used one.....hint, hint!
I'm also strongly considering going with the Micro retracts air retract system. I've never done retracts before, but this one begs for it. I innitialy wanted to go with a belly lander, not being too partial to gws stock landing gear. Problem is, I'm worried about breaking the bottoms of the rudders off during landings. They hang low, and are a thin piece of foam to be settling the plane down on. I can see problems there. The retracts would of course be very cool, but I'm not sure how well they would hold up (pun intended) on my short grass flying field. They are rated to 1000 gram planes, and I would hope I'd be building the 38 to be coming out a heck of a lot lighter than that. What do you guys think....go retracts? Anyway, as soon as I hear from Joyce, a silver non powered 38 will be on its way!!! Yeehaw!!
Jaggy

I think mechanicals would be the way to go, if you have seen the pictures of the P-38 taken apart the booms and the pod section end up as one, so you could use probably use one HS-81 and with a bell crank run all the retracrts...

Someone (mfg) needs to step up to the plate with P-38 style retracts. The problem is the fact they retract rearword, this puts the pushrod behind the retract making it pretty hard to get linkage to it. Maybe Mr. Lin will work out a good set for this one? Let's hope.

Problem is, I'm worried about breaking the bottoms of the rudders off during landings. They hang low, and are a thin piece of foam to be settling the plane down on. I can see problems there.
Jaggy

It is seems that you are not the only one worried about fin strikes on the ground while landing. Locheed made sure that the tail fins had pleanty of ground clearance to prevent such a happening. See the attachment 1

I have made more than 50 belly landings, on my own design scale outline P-38, without fin ground strike problems.

Ken

Images

Someone (mfg) needs to step up to the plate with P-38 style retracts. The problem is the fact they retract rearword, this puts the pushrod behind the retract making it pretty hard to get linkage to it. Maybe Mr. Lin will work out a good set for this one? Let's hope.

Do some more thinking about the P-38 nose leg. It will be very hard to use only one servo to retract all three wheels on the GWS-38 so a separate servo will be needed for the nose leg.

The drawing attached shows where the servo can be placed, in the pod, to allow the leg to be retracted without the pushrod or servo fouling the leg. Reference to the GWS web site revealed that the leg and the operating rod are not on the same alignment. I would mount the retract unit and servo on a plywood plate and make all the adjustments while the plate is still outside the fuselage. After all adjustments are correct then the plate would be mounted in the pod.

Images

The only problem I see with an air retract system is where do you put the air tank?

both booms will have the retracts, motors and ESC('s) and the cockpit area will have the retract and battery and reciever (and elevator and rudder servo). Maybe it could go in a permanently attached external drop-tank. or maybe one can be fit in the nose cone.

I guess we will have to wait and see how much room there really is inside the GWS-38.

air retracts seem the way to go on this model...haven't seen the specs on the air tank for the micro air system...hopefully it's smaller than the x-small tank from robart...keep in mind with the air system, you also need to find room for the air valve and servo and linkage to operate that air valve...below are pixs of something i rigged up for another model...as posted above, really need to see the model first to see how much room there is in the central pod...

This P-38 model is 15% smaller than the GWS-38 and yet this Ronson 30 gram gass cylinder is not to large to fit inside the pod or booms.

This cylinder is about 50 cubic centermetrs capacity and the Micro Retract cylinders have a total of about 2.25 cubic centermeters capacity so there would be enough air in the Ronson cylinder for 20 retact cycles.I doubt that more than 5 retract cycles would be needed for one flight so a cylinder only 1/4 of this size is all that would be needed.